Copyright © Chelsea Camaron 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Chelsea Camaron, except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
1st Edition Published: March 2015
Whiskey Girls Publishing
Editing: Asli Fratarcangeli and C&D Editing
Cover Design by: Jessie Lane
Cover Images by: © DmitriMaruta | Iakov Kalinin | Shutterstock
Formatting: IndieVention Designs
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This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and events portrayed in this book either are from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, establishments, events, or location is purely coincidental and not intended by the author. Please do not take offense to the content, as it is FICTION.
Trademarks: This book identifies product names and services known to be trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of their respective holders, The authors acknowledges the trademarked status in this work of fiction. The publication and use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
This book contains mature content not suitable for those under the age of 18. Involves strong language and sexual situations. All parties portrayed in sexual situations are adults over the age of 18.
All characters are fictional. Any similarities are purely coincidental.
Other Titles Available by Chelsea Camaron
The Love and Repair Series
Crash and Burn
Restore My Heart
Salvaged
Full Throttle
Beyond Repair
Stalled
The Hellions Ride Series
One Ride
Forever Ride
Merciless Ride
Eternal Ride
Innocent Ride
The Fire Inside Series – co-written by Theresa Marguerite Hewitt
Kale
The Roughnecks Series
Maverick (found in Moments in Time Anthology)
Heath (found in Blue Colla Make Ya Holla Anthology)
The Regulators MC Series – co-written by Jessie Lane
Ice
~~~~~
Other Titles by Whiskey Girls Publishing
By Jessie Lane
The Burning Star
The Frozen Star
Secret Maneuvers
Stripping Her Defenses
Mission Delivery
Big Bad Bite
Walk on the Striped Side
Eternal Ride
Two people once lost.
Two people once broken.
Two people who have endured the pain.
One love brought them together. One love healed their hearts and made them whole again. One love carries them through both the good times and the bad.
Shooter and Tessie have faced the shadows and demons that haunt their souls. They have built their life together on a solid foundation of love, friendship, and understanding. The only thing they haven’t done is make it official.
Join them as they come together to commit to one another for the eternal ride.
*Intended for mature audiences only*
This series contains strong language, strong sexual situations, and violence. Please do not buy if any of this offends you.
This is not meant to be a true or exact depiction of a motorcycle club, rather a work of fiction meant to entertain.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
About the Author
Coming Soon
Excerpt of Ice (Regulators MC Book 1) Co-Written by Jessie Lane
CHAPTER ONE
SIMPLE
~Shooter~
“Are you sure I shouldn’t at least go back to work at Brinkley’s?” Tessie asks in all sincerity.
Sincere or not, I look over to her from our kitchen table as if she has two heads. It is the same fight we have month after month.
After she agreed to move in with me, she took time off to help her mom adjust and be at home more for Axel. Brinkley’s has told her she can come back to work anytime, but that is a decision I leave solely up to her.
“Baby, come here.”
She walks over slowly. When she is close enough, I reach out and pull her to my lap.
“Why do we keep having this conversation?”
“I don’t know,” she whispers. “Maybe because I’m stubborn.” She bites at her bottom lip, making my dick twitch in my jeans. God, she is even sexy in sweats and an old tank top. The littlest things turn me on with this woman. Hell, if I am honest, everything about her turns me on.
“You wanna work, then work. You wanna stay home with your mom and Axel, stay home. Baby, you’re on the bank account; you see the statements. We aren’t rich, but we damn sure don’t struggle.”
“That’s your money, Shooter,” she states calmly, just like she does every time we discuss money.
My anger rises yet again over this same topic.
“Tessie, is that my ring on your finger?”
“Yes,” she answers, looking down at her left hand.
“Is it my last name you will soon have?”
“Yes, Shooter.” She blows out a frustrated breath.
“Am I a man?”
“Andy,” she chastises my smartass remark.
“Baby, am I a man?” She nods at me. “Am I your man?”
“Yes, Shooter, you know all this.”
“Then tell me, why is it such a problem for me as a man to take care of you as my woman? To take care of my family? Are we not building something to be a family?” I watch her, trying to gauge where her head is.
“Yes, Shooter. It’s just hard. I’m so used to doing it all. It’s hard to accept help.”
Jumping up from my chair, I stand her on her feet.
“Help!” I roar at her. She flinches, not used to me getting so worked up. “Fuck, Tessie! This isn’t help. This is us being together. Dammit, I take care of what’s mine. Last I checked, you are fuckin’ mine. Unless something’s changed that you need to tell me about …”
Without a word, she rolls up on her tiptoes and kisses me. My frustration only adds to the passion as I suck hard on her bottom lip before pulling away, releasing her mouth with a pop.
“Baby, if you need to work, then work. But, please, stop the shit over money. I get it, baby, I really do. Don’t call what I do help, ever. It’s not help; it’s being a man.”
“Okay, Shooter.”
“Okay, Shooter? That was a little too easy.” I raise an eyebrow at her.
“I am yours, and you’re the type of man to take care of what’s yours. So I need to decide if I want to work for me and not about the money.”
“You gonna marry me sometime soon, then?” If she is going to concede so easily over the money, then now is the time to push my luck on the other topic we have not quite been seeing eye-to-eye on.
The wedding. The wedding that I want to happen, like yesterday. Although the road to get us here was far from
easy, I have never wanted something so much in my life—to have her carry my last name, to have her carry my babies, and most importantly, to have her share my life for always.
“Shooter,” she whines, knowing this is yet another topic we will go in circles over.
“What? I want you to have my name, have my babies, and sooner rather than later. Just sayin’.” I try to look innocent, but I seriously doubt she finds any of this innocent on my end.
“So, take me to the court house. I told you this already.”
Exasperating woman.
“We are not getting married at the damn court house. First, I tend to avoid court houses. I don’t know any Hellion that will willingly go to one. Nor do I want one of the happiest days of our lives to be at a court house. That doesn’t work for me, Tessie. Second, your mom had one daughter. Baby, little girls dream of the dress, the man, the day, and so do their moms. What’s the problem with you having all that?”
She sighs. “Shooter, weddings are expensive.”
“Fuckin’ money. Why does everything come back to money, Tessie? I may not be rich, but damn, I’m not poor.”
She reaches up, placing her hands on my chest. “Shooter, this isn’t about your money. I know you provide well for us. I know you want to give me the wedding of my dreams. It honestly has nothing to do with you. It’s me, Shooter. I can’t see spending some crazy amount of money on one day, even if it is the biggest day of my life outside of having Axel.”
Tears pool in her eyes. God, I hate when she cries.
“There was a time not so long ago when I counted pennies just to get by. There was a time when, yes, I went to the grocery store to use the coin machine just to be able to get milk and cereal for Axel.” As the tears fall, I reach up and run my thumbs under her eyes to wipe them away. “I can’t forget my struggles, Shooter. You make everything feel so easy it scares me sometimes. You take care of me in a way I’ve never been taken care of before. Even when I was a kid with Momma, we struggled. I’ve never known how to relax and not worry about having enough to get by until my next night with good tips or my next paycheck.”
“What can we do so we aren’t at the court house, but you don’t feel like you’re breaking the bank? Tell me what you want.”
“I want memories. I want family, friends, you, me, and Axel to have this together. I don’t want a church. I don’t want some big shindig. I just want simple.”
“Baby, if it’s memories you want, it’s memories you’ll get.”
CHAPTER TWO
MIAMI
~Shooter~
Sun, surf, and sand. Never would I have imagined Brett ‘Ice’ Grady coming to Miami and settling down. Things aren’t always what they seem, I guess.
There is an anxiousness inside me as we make the drive southbound.
Tessie is cute when she gets all nervous about meeting someone close to me. She has talked to Ice and Brooke here and there on the phone calls we have managed, but the whole meeting them is different. Hell, I thought she was going to cry when she met Fred, Tracie’s dad, for the first time. My woman feels deeply, loves harder, and takes on everything for everyone. She has brought Fred into our little family as if he is one of our own. He lost his wife and daughter, but he still has me, my girl, and our boy.
Axel spends time out at the garage with me, learning everything from the man who taught me when I wasn’t that much older than he is now. Life is good for a change, for all of us.
Since the day we got the graduation announcement in the mail from Brooke, Tessie has been a little on edge. She fires away question after question daily about Ice and the rest of the guys. All of it takes me back.
Throughout the years, we have done the best we could with our situations. I will never forget watching Ice hit his knees when our command gave him the news of Erin’s accident and death. He went home, sorted his shit, and carried on, even though he has never been the same. Then, when Tracie killed herself, he left little Brooke with his mom to help me sort my shit and try to figure out how to carry on.
Over the years, we have kept in touch, and I have always been around to watch Brooke’s milestones. Time is passing by so quickly. It seems as if it was just yesterday we were trying to make it home in time for her kindergarten graduation. Yes, Brooke had eight Army Green Berets all side-by-side at her kindergarten graduation, watching her pig-tailed little ass get a blank piece of rolled up paper while wearing the tiniest cap and gown ever. While she smiled brightly at us, we all proudly smiled right back alongside Ice’s mom.
That little girl captured all of us, and now I get to make the drive to be there to watch her wear a grown up sized cap and gown, once again walking across a stage for a rolled up piece of paper. Only when she smiles down at us this time, her grandmother won’t be there as her mother wasn’t there the first time. My chest tightens thinking of how things have changed over the years.
Looking in the rearview mirror, I watch Axel as he plays some game on his tablet. What will it feel like the day he graduates? He is as much mine as he is Rex’s son. Speaking of which, things are good for us now. He understands why Tessie didn’t tell him and why I kept her secret, as well. Still, it is not my proudest moment, but I will always have Tessie’s back through anything.
We have found a routine that works and have become a family unit of our own. Rex sees Axel when he is in town. We do stuff all together, and he keeps him on his own, as well. We spend important moments and holidays together so no one feels left out. That way, Axel truly gets everyone he is close to, all in one place.
How will my brother-in-arms react to my son? Hell, how will he react to my fiancée? Ice knows I have an ol’ lady and a son, but we haven’t had time to catch each other up with all the details of the changes I have had.
Pulling into the parking garage of the hotel we are staying at, I smile as I think about how good my life really is now. As I look beside me at Tessie’s beautiful face, I feel complete. No longer am I a lost man rambling through life with no purpose. I am now taking every breath to have more moments with her.
Once we are unpacked, we go out to dinner downtown. This is a reminder of why I have zero desire to live in the city. Hell, I thought Charlotte was a pain in the ass to drive around when I make the commute to work. Home has nothing on South Beach.
Tessie pokes around her plate. “Brooke and I get along on the phone, but meeting all of them at once… It’s overwhelming. Do you think they’ll like me?”
“Baby, are you seriously asking me this?”
“Yeah, Shooter. These guys are important to you. I want to make a good impression.”
I smile at her. “You and Axel are more important. I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks of you. It doesn’t change a damn thing between us.”
“I love you, Andy.” She looks at me before finally eating.
“Love you, baby, for eternity.”
“Enough with the mushy talk, you two. Young ears are here, ya know,” Axel pipes in.
I reach over and ruffle his hair.
My chest tightens looking at my woman and my son. It doesn’t get much better than this right here.
CHAPTER THREE
EYES WIDE OPEN
~Shooter~
“Ice!” I call out once I spot my brother-in-arms. We have just arrived and gotten out of the car with our graduation tickets. To need to have a ticket to enter into a high school graduation seems crazy, but I guess, with a school so large, they have to limit the guests in attendance.
Both Ice and his daughter look over and then Brooke screams, “Uncle Shooter,” and takes off running at me.
Ice comes over, holding the hand of a brunette woman I have never seen before. Another teen who looks related to the brunette follows closely behind. They must be his woman Morgan and her sister Madyson. Brooke has given me updates, but we have all been so busy that it wasn’t a complete catch up. Plus, love the girl, but she talks a lot. I can’t help getting lost in my own thoughts as I listen to the rambling
teen.
After Ice greets me in our usual man half-hug, back slap thing, I smile at the woman beside him.
“Shooter, this is Morgan,” Ice officially introduces us.
“Damn, never thought I’d see the day someone melted that permafrost around your heart. Congrats, asshole,” I joke while extending my hand to her.
She gives my hand a quick, friendly shake before stepping back next to Ice. I give her a knowing smile. He has her trained already. Yes, no one touches what belongs to Ice. Can’t say I blame him, though; beyond a handshake, if anyone touches Tessie, my inner cave man goes ape-shit crazy.
“Fuck you!” Ice replies in jest at my smirk while wrapping his arm around Morgan’s shoulders to let her know she is back where she belongs.
I step back and wrap my arm around Tessie. Time for introductions of my own. “Brooke, Ice, this is my ol’ lady Tessie and our boy Axel.”
“Nice to meet you in person after talking on the phone so much.” Brooke bounces excitedly.
“I can’t believe you’re actually here, Uncle Shooter,” Brooke continues with a smile that lights up the world.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, baby girl.”
“She’s got the ring, so when are you givin’ her the name?” Ice asks me bluntly, nodding at Tessie’s left hand.
“As soon as she gives me a day and time to show up,” I proudly respond, wishing I had a definite answer or, better yet, had this already done. Nodding to Morgan, I reply, “You better move that one in before someone else swoops in and snatches that prize right out of your hands.” I give her a playful wink. Anything to get the topic changed from my non-impending nuptials.
“Just needed to get these two graduated. After today, that’s a definite, brother.”
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